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Tag Archives: PC

Open Source 1, Proprietary Software 0

Saturday, March 7, 2009

I bought a new HP laptop this week after my old one died.  I decided on the HP after looking at Macs, Dells, Lenovos, and a few others.  I was tempted but couldn’t justify the extra expense of the Mac, both for the computer itself and for the Windows XP or Vista I would need [...]

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OpenDNS

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

With Security at Risk, A Push to Patch the Web in today’s NY Times reminded me about OpenDNS, a free domain name system service.  The article, which deals with a serious security flaw discovered in the operation of the domain name system earlier this year by Dan Kaminsky, an Internet security expert, notes that individuals [...]

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Isn’t It Ironic

Friday, May 16, 2008

I’ve determined the cause of my recent PC problems, in which Windows XP gets hung up while rebooting: Windows XP Service Pack 3. I isolated the other variables and allowed Windows to download and install XP SP3 and reboot, and it never completed rebooting. It took another hour-plus to restore Windows to [...]

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PC2: Potential Convert

Saturday, May 10, 2008

I think I have fixed my PC problems, which means I’m 70% confident that the computer will return to functioning status each time I reboot. The fix–not cure, fix–came by doing a Windows XP repair reinstallation, updating device drivers, and applying other Microsoft spells and rituals of which Mac owners live in blissful ignorance. [...]

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PC: Problems Compounded

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

I am involved in my annual computer meltdown. Every year since 2004–every single year–I’ve had major computer problems sometime between mid-April and mid-May. This is a particularly bad time for me compared to, say, July–and yes, I have PCs. (I hear chuckles from the Mac users. You know who you [...]

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Apple Apostasy

Monday, October 1, 2007

A month ago the media was filled with stories about the New Jersey teenager who hacked the iPhone to work on cell carriers other than AT&T. Not one of the dozen or so articles I read then addressed the most obvious questions: Won’t this hack invalidate the iPhone’s warranty? Isn’t this hack [...]

Filed in eCommerce | Also tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Speech, Chilled

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Johns Hopkins student Justin Park posted on Facebook an invitation to attend his fraternity’s “Halloween in the Hood” party. After the school’s director of Greek Affairs notified Park that he found the invitation to be offensive Park removed it, replacing it with another that eliminated (in Park’s estimation) the troublesome language. The second [...]

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